This invention relates to a cell handling apparatus, and in particular, to a cell fusion apparatus suited for effecting one-to-one fusion of cells.
In a conventional cell fusion apparatus, for example, as described on pages 845 to 846 of the collection of treatises of the academic in the spring meeting of the Japan Society of Precision Engineering in 1987, different types of cells are supplied one by one to chambers arranged in a matrix-like manner, and the cells are fixed to respective small slits of the chambers by absorbing them with absorption nozzles so as to effect cell fusion in each chamber.
In the above-described prior art, no consideration is given to the phenomenon that cell membranes adhere to walls of the chambers when they rest thereon for long periods of time so that the cell fusion rate cannot be improved.